Bryan-David Scott, president and founder of North Star Fine Coffees, recently had a chat with Craig Breslow, a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Oakland A’s and founder of the Strike 3 Foundation.  He was able to ask a few questions and get Craig’s opinion of North Star’s coffees.  Here’s what Craig had to say…

What do you like/appreciate about North Star Fine Coffees? 

I appreciate the pride and personalization with which North Star deals with coffee and their customers.  Each customer should feel like they have developed a unique relationship with the company, because despite imminent growth, North Star maintains closely beholden to the customer and not the bottom line.

How would you describe our coffees? 

Obviously the taste of the coffees differs from blend to blend, however I would say that the one commonality is quality.  All the brews are impeccably blended and reach the consumer freshly and quickly.  The Strike 3 Brew, naturally, is my favorite!

What have you heard others say about our coffee? 

All the feedback I have heard has been great.  North Star was served at our gala to 500 people, and our guests raved about the quality of the coffee.  We have also been fortunate to have many of our executives sample the Strike 3 Blend, and again it drew rave reviews!

Try some Strike 3 for yourself and support the Strike 3 Foundation at the same time:

==> www.northstarfinecoffees.com/strike3

Bryan-David Scott was recently interviewed by Donn Dabney, Jamie Waterman, and Rick Miron, on KSVY 91.3 FM Sonoma on Friday, January 14 regarding North Star Fine Coffees involvement with the Strike 3 Foundation. 

Listen in on the conversation! 
(When you click the link an audio controller will appear.  Just click Play.)

Please click on the following link if you’d like to sample the ==> Strike 3 Coffee.

by Phong Huynh

A tip for any office that has a community coffee urn:  please rinse it out every once in a while! Coffee should never be chunky when dispensed, as often is the case at my office. Just one more reason to make my own coffee in the morning, which will be even easier with my new espresso machine. (Great excuse to buy one!) I can’t wait to try North Star Fine Coffee in the machine… any coffee good enough for the Sounders FC is good enough for me!

==> Share your coffee story

It’s common for me to receive news asking me to consider partnering with a company or charity, but when I received the following Yahoo article I knew I had to reach out to Strike 3 Foundation’s manager Joe Lizza.  We appreciate and respect what Oakland A’s RP Craig Breslow does on and off the field.  He embodies the spirit we try to maintain here at North Star every day… doing everything you can to make an important difference in our communities.

Craig Breslow

• http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-breslow091410
   
• http://www.strike3foundation.org/news/as-update-craig-breslow-ranked-no-1-on-the-sporting-news-smartest-athlete-list/
   
• http://mlb.mlb.com/pa/releases/releases.jsp?content=081610
   
• 10/3/10: Craig Breslow induces a flyout, collecting his fifth save of the year as the Oakland A’s end the season in victorious fashion:  http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=12744249
   
• http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=10561995

ARCHIVES OF INTEREST

• http://mlb.mlb.com/search/media.jsp?query=craig+breslow&x=0&y=0

 
Andrew Bailey

Andrew was Major League Baseball’s Rookie of the Year, 2009.  His work on and off the field is impressive.

• http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091115&content_id=7669396&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
   
• http://mlb.mlb.com/pa/releases/releases.jsp?content=081610
   
• http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=11631887 

ARCHIVES OF INTEREST

• http://mlb.mlb.com/search/?query=andrew+bailey&x=0&y=0

On behalf of our family at North Star Fine Coffees, I’m encouraging every one of our fans to get behind the Strike 3 Foundation and support them.  Every gift makes a difference.

Remember, “Small things done with great love will change the world.”

Thank you,
-bd

Bryan-David Scott, President
North Star Fine Coffees
Seattle’s Luxury Coffee Company

Explore. Experience. Enjoy.

Seattle, WA
(206) 722-3060

from press release

THE FREEDOM WRITERS FOUNDATION PARTNERS WITH SEATTLE’S NORTH STAR FINE COFFEES

Long Beach, CA – The Freedom Writers Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has partnered with North Star Fine Coffees, a luxury coffee company based in Seattle, to release “Room 203,” a blend formulated especially for supporters of the Freedom Writers, in an effort to raise funds to support the Foundation’s mission to provide educators with the tools to empower at-risk students to reach their full potential. The Foundation was established by Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers during their experience at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.

As an idealistic first-year English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of students deemed “unteachable.” Challenged by the students of classroom 203, Ms. Gruwell used books written by teenagers, such as Anne Frank’s diary, to reach her students and encourage them to write about their own lives. Following Frank’s example, her students began chronicling their stories in journals and dubbed themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the Civil Rights activists, the Freedom Riders. Four years later, her students defied the odds, shattered stereotypes, and graduated from high school. A year later, Doubleday Books, published their journals in The Freedom Writers Diary. In 2007, Paramount Pictures released “Freedom Writers,” starring Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell.

Ms. Gruwell and her students set up the Freedom Writers Foundation in an effort to recreate the success of room 203 in classrooms across the country. “I drank lots of coffee in room 203, so to have a coffee named after our magical classroom is such an honor!” Said Erin Gruwell, Founder and Executive Director of the Freedom Writers Foundation, “we’re thrilled about the partnership!”

Bryan-David Scott, North Star’s founder, was so moved by the Freedom Writers film that he contacted the Foundation to share his experience after watching and connecting to the Freedom Writers’ story. After a few conversations, it became apparent that North Star Fine Coffees and the Freedom Writers Foundation could work together to make a good blend of coffee available to overworked teachers and raise funds to provide educators with support and innovative tools to make connections with students in classrooms across America.

After months of hard work, Bryan-David’s team created two blends, a medium and a special dark roast. Coffee expert and connoisseur Steven Clark tasted the coffees and described them as “well balanced and aromatic, with tones of cocoa,” he went on to say that the coffee, brewed with a French press, was “full bodied, with tones that rested on the back of the tongue, the same place where wine carries most of its flavor.”

Click here to try 203 coffee for yourself.

by Mike Hurst

In all honesty, throughout the greater portion of my life, coffee had not even remotely been considered a “luxury item.”

Remembering my childhood, coffee was considered an “adults only” drink.  That mysterious taboo shaped my early perception of coffee as “pretty gnarly stuff.”  To reinforce that, as a young adult I repeatedly saw people drink it simply to “kick-start” their day, to pull off double-shifts, to keep from running off the highway on long road trips.

After working a graveyard shift for a couple years myself (drinking the vending machine stuff), I pretty much wrote off coffee as a “non-food item.”  Actually, for the last twenty-something years, the only hot beverage I really enjoyed was organic or exotic (usually green) tea.

As the “flavored-coffee movement” rolled in, I watched unflinching (ok, I chuckled a bit too) as the conventional 8 oz “cup of coffee” antiquated, the 20 oz “Venti” moved in, and a whole new “coffee lingo” emerged.

As better quality coffees became more common fare, I’d have a cup if my wife and I were in (1) an extremely high-end restaurant, or (2) an “all organic, super healthy” restaurant.  All truth told, I’ve never really been “captured by coffee” until I tasted North Star Fine Coffees.

My wife and I are in the hospitality industry and have dined in high-end restaurants from Seattle, to Pismo Beach, to Dallas, to Chicago… we’ve had opportunities to be “wowed” by coffee, but it honestly hasn’t happened til now. 

And I won’t say we’ve turned “coffee addicts” or “connoisseurs”. We don’t have to stop at a coffee shop for “our morning fix.”  I’ll still pass on coffee unless we’re at a super-nice restaurant. 

But North Star Fine Coffees have changed our perspective.  We can start off our day now, right from our home, with a truly luxury item.  There’s nothing better than starting our day knowing we’ve got the best there is at hand.  It actually sets a higher tone for the day.  Thank’s North Star!

==> Share your coffee story

I read an article recently from Consumer Reports.  It was a coffee taste test that mentioned the poor quality among blended coffees and suggested that 100% Columbian was the way to go if you like your coffee black.  Based on what is available in the grocery stores this is probably an accurate assessment.

But Steven Clark, renowned Seattle coffee expert, had a chance to taste the beans we use in our coffee blends.  He remarked that our Columbian beans are the best he’s tasted in over 10 years!  And he also commented on our Sumatran beans.  He said they are the best he’s tasted in over 25 years!  Clearly Consumer Reports did not get their hands on North Star Fine Coffees.   

For the Columbian coffee enthusiasts, a number of our blends do contain Columbian coffee…

North Star Black Label (blend of Colombian, Sumatran, Costa Rican)
America’s Cup (blend of Colombian, Costa Rican, Sumatran)
Seattle Reign (blend of Costa Rican, Colombian)
Simply Decadent (blend of Colombian, Guatemalan) *Also, available in decaf
Decaf Royale (100% pure Columbian Supremo)

Go ahead and try any of these coffees black.  We’ve heard it suggested that you’ll find them so rich and filled with flavor that you won’t want to ruin them with cream or sugar.  There’s nothing in the flavor you’d want to cover up.

I’m excited to point out that our blends are all premium #1 coffees getting rave reviews.  Take a look at what others are saying about these coffees on our coffee testimonials page.  Then try some for yourself.  You’ll discover what the taste testers at Consumer Reports didn’t know!

While we have a page on this blog dedicated to testimonials, this one is somewhat longer than most and contains a good story, so we’ve decided to include it right here.
 

My wife and I have recently been exposed to a new coffee experience…North Star Fine Coffees. We’ve sampled the “Kick“, “Seattle Reign” and “Simply Decadent” roasts…all have exceeded our expectations for quality and flavor. We’ve quickly gotten spoiled…and thankful for that!

The following is a “blind taste test” I unexpectedly was subjected to. It just validates the old saying, “The proof of the pudding (or in this case, the coffee) is in the tasting!”

In a somewhat hurried effort to get some breakfast in us one morning, Nancy set to brewing up a pot of coffee while I jumped in the shower. She had some multi-tasking to do as well, so breakfast was even moreso abbreviated. When I got out of the shower I grabbed a raisin muffin and a cup of coffee. Immediately sensing something was “way different”, I asked her which coffee she’d used. She said, “I used Starbuck’s.” Turns out she had some already ground and wanted to save time. Fact is, I immediately noticed the difference. 

We’re not coffee “experts” by trade…we’re just “regular joes” who like treating our bodies well. We make it a point to use fresh ingredients, purified water and clean equipment. That being said, we believe what comes out of our coffeemaker is “honest” and “as good as it’s going to get”. I drink mine black, Nancy dresses her’s with cream and sugar…so that covers the broad ends of the preference spectrum.

Nancy and I are representatives to the Oregon Coast tourism industry, the Wine and Hospitality industry and the Resort and Spa industry. We have no reserves whatsoever in sharing these fine coffees with “the best of the best” in any of those industries.

Thank you for bringing a superior product to the market. We truly believe North Star Fine Coffees is “America’s Next Great Coffee Experience”.

Mike & Nancy Hurst

from press release

RENTON, Wash. – The Seattle Seahawks and Sounders FC today announced a partnership with North Star Fine Coffees, the makers of Sounders FC Kick Coffee™ and the Blitz Blend.™

Kick Coffee™ blends the finest Costa Rican and Guatemalan coffees and is filled with high notes of berry-like flavors combined with chocolaty, nutty overtones.  Of note, Kick Coffee™ was made especially for soccer fans.

“Our Kick Coffee™ and Blitz Blend™ offer a whole new coffee experience to Seahawks and Sounders FC fans. Coffee lovers will appreciate our passion to deliver an unforgettable experience; and they will notice the difference in our quality, roasting, and the lingering richness of flavor that is in each cup,” said North Star Fine Coffees Founder and President, Bryan-David Scott.

Beginning April 7, fans have a special opportunity to try Kick Coffee™ at a substantial discount by ordering from www.kickcoffee.com and entering the Coupon Code “SOUNDERS” (case sensitive). In the spirit of Sounders FC “Give Us Your Full 90,” 90 cents per pound sold will be donated to local charities and matched by an additional 90 cents from North Star Fine Coffees.

“North Star Fine Coffees shares our commitment and passion for community,” said Sounders FC Sr. Vice President Gary Wright.  “Local charities will benefit from every pound of coffee sold.”

As a featured partner on the Sounders FC website, fans will be able to register to win free coffee, game tickets, and post-game field access with an opportunity to meet selected players. For more information visit www.kickcoffee.com.

Kick Coffee is the first ever specialty coffee made especially for soccer fans!  It was first featured in Seattle for the MLS Cup and pre-MLS Cup party, hosted by Prost Amerika. 

And now,  Kick Coffee is the newest “starting player” of North Star Fine Coffees award winning line up of 5 star rated, premium grade 1, Seattle coffees.  It is available for purchase on our main website.

Kick Coffee is made as a blend of the finest Costa Rican and Guatemalan coffees.  Costa Rican coffees are prized for their high notes (bright citrus or berry-like flavors in the acidity) with distinct nut to chocolate roasty flavors, and Guatemalan coffee is revered as one of the most flavorful and nuanced cups in the world.

Combined in perfect proportion, with a medium-dark roast, Kick Coffee scores the winning goal in flavor.  Try some today.

Go team!